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Storytelling for product managers

3.
● True
○ “Directionally”
● Emotionally compelling
● Exciting
○ At least not boring
● Compact and leaves ‘em wanting more
How do we make this happen for “our customer used our product and got more
sales?”
A Good (Sales) Story Is

6.
Making It A Better Story
● Find a “vertical takeoff”
○ A bad thing was going to happen until I stepped in
○ (Or, a good thing wasn’t going to happen until I stepped in)
● Work on concrete results - both quantitative and emotionally grabby
○ “Pay off” all the challenges mentioned in the problem
○ Quantitative results and business results are NOT emotionally grabby
○ Emotionally grabby are “I was promoted,” “I become the expert,” “I got a nice pat on the back,”
etc.
○ Also, to some people, “we crushed the competitors” is emotionally grabby

7.
Storytelling Coaching (1 of 2)
● People struggle most with the problem and the results
○ Note: “Problem” section could be an opportunity
● To find the real pain, and the real emotional content, some good questions are:
○ “What would have happened if you hadn’t solved the problem?”
○ “How much would that have cost?”
○ “What was the business impact of doing nothing?”
○ “What would that mean for your job?”
○ “Tell me more”
○ Help them find a “vertical takeoff”

8.
Storytelling Coaching (2 of 2)
● For the solution, some good guidance is
○ “Leave them wanting to know more, so they can ask questions”
○ 4-5 key actions that you took, or that you led or guided
○ What did you do
● For the results
○ “Did you get recognition for this?”
○ “Did it make your boss look better? Help him/her save face?”
○ “Did you get a raise or a promotion?”
○ “Did it change your reputation in the company? Did you become the expert in that?”

9.
Using Stories
● Customer success stories
○ “Our customer had problem P” - meaty, emotionally grabby, and business-significant, with a
vertical takeoff
○ Solution = “They tried other things and failed, then got our product because of X, Y, and Z”
○ Results = “Their problem was solved, our champion got a raise, and they started taking market
share from their competitors”
○ Since they are longer, you will need to spread the story - and the results - out
● Job interview - “Tell me about a time…”
○ Aim for 90 seconds for the whole story - ¼ problem, ½ solution, ¼ results

10.
Using Stories
● Pitching a new product idea
○ Problem is market problem with significant impact to the customer
○ Solution is “They tried all these things and they didn’t work” or “they are using spreadsheets
and it’s causing all kinds of problems”
○ Results are “If we do X, our market will have results Y”
● Bullets - use “R, by S” - “results by solution”
○ Customer story: “Let me tell you how one of our customers achieved massive market share
growth using our product.”
○ Resume bullet: “Turned sales around, and sales team achieved quota for three quarters in a
row, by driving a change in how we demoed the product”

11.
Advanced Topics
● “Two problems”
○ Initial problem was presented
○ During solution found real underlying problem
○ VERY effective story structure (almost all Hollywood movies have this structure)
● Setup
○ Sometimes you have to set up the situation before getting to the problem
○ This is OK, but be quick about it!